Teapot Trophy 12th October 2019
The forecast weather wasn’t good, but a light southerly breeze was going to make for good racing from the west bank. Peter Jackson, our friend from Northampton was first to arrive and together with Charles Wand Tetley we got set up and made good the sideways movement of the landing stage, courtesy of the Abbey Meads lake vandals!! From the bank the weed situation didn’t seem too bad, but it was the rain that was again the feature of the day. It rained continuously until we finished at about 2 o’clock.
The wind was southerly, light and patchy with the odd gusts either more south-easterly or south-westerly to keep one concentrating on getting speed out of this light air. All 5 of us got weed at some point or other, but this evened out and we had some good racing, very close at times and we all enjoyed that. Peter, who was made an absolutely superb job of building his UP from my moulds was learning how to get the best out of his A rig and picked up some tips and took photographs of my UP rig detail. Charles, who hadn’t sailed his WHISPER much was also learning, but his boat was going very well at times, particularly offwind. Unfortunately the relatively new rudder servo in his BOOT developed a fault and he had to retire. However he sailed Martin’s PRIME NUMBER and my UP a couple of times and was delighted to win the last of the 8 races.
Martin, sailing his PRIME NUMBER with a short keel had the best day and won on merit as can be seen from the results, but he also won on handicap. He was presented with the Teapot Trophy, which was kindly brought to the lake by Peter Dunne who was deep into kitchen plumbing and couldn’t stay to sail.
Many thanks to Alan for producing the results schedule and working out the handicap results on the Excel spreadsheet. A photo of the handwritten results is attached is a picture.
Report by Roger Stollery
Ted Gearey Trophy Club Event with the Bart’s Bash – Biggest Little Boat Bash Report
When we arrived at Abbey Meads we were in no hurry because there was no wind. So we made good the damage caused by vandals to the launching platform on the west bank, which we had prepared for following photo kindly taken by John Townsend last Wednesday.
With an easterly forecast we launched our dinghy from the southern launching platform and there was a little bit of wind, but you could barely feel it. So we abandoned the idea of sailing our Marbleheads and set up the Footy Internet Course (FIC), because Footys go amazingly well in light winds as a result of of their big sail area and lightweight the displacement. We sailed 3 times round the course as is required by the FIC rules to complete a race and we raced 6 times, before the wind changed through 180° and destroyed the course.
Race 3 was good because Roger was timed at 3 minutes dead and Martin at 3.03 minutes. It was close racing and much more exciting than it appears on the surface! Our worst period extended Martin’s winning time to 8 minutes and 31 seconds and Roger was unable to finish! Towards the end the wind just died away and turned round making the course collapse.
Guildford Model Yacht Club are donating a minimum of £50 to the Andrew Simpson Foundation.
Our next event is on Saturday, 12 October and look forward to a big entry and getting our Marblehead racing going again.
BOTTLE boat Championships – Waldringfield 11 August
GAMES 9 Marblehead interclub at RADIO SAILING WOKING in Goldsworth Lake.
Short Report by Roger Stollery based on a report by RO Peter Kirby
Sunday 28th July dawned with a cloudless sky, comfortable temperature and best of all, a variable south-westerly breeze for the duration of the first Interclub GAMES event that RSW had organized.
The wind allowed a 200 metre windward/leeward course to be set along the centre of the lake.
Eight Marbleheads sailed 17 races in one fleet in a 3-10 mph breeze with gusts of 15 mph. There was close company in the beats to the windward and spreader marks, followed by runs accelerating into occasional exciting planing speeds to the leeward gate.
The racing die was cast from Race 1 onwards in that Colin Goodman (Grunge) in the majority of cases took the lead from the windward mark , thereafter to rocket down wind with others, notably Dave Andrews (Grunge),Roger Stollery (Up) and Martin Crysell (Prime Number) in hot pursuit, but were seldom able to depose Colin from taking the spoils.
In the wind shifts, local knowledge of the peculiarities of the lake was put to the test by ‘home representatives’ Roger Pearce (Prime Number), Simon Jeffs (Prime Number), Peter Dunne (Starkers), and Peter Chance (Starkers), but to no avail as Colin Goodman claimed a well deserved top place on the podium with 11 wins and this result now puts him at the top of the leaderboard of the GAMES series.
At the prize giving in the Radio Sailing Woking club room, Race Officer Peter Kirby was pleased with the competitors well disciplined conduct, which resulted in no protests and all incidents resolved on the water, as he had requested. The competitors thanked him and the three-man race team for running this event and taking on this GAMES interclub event.
The overall GAMES results are available on the Guildford MYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.uk and more information about activities at Radio Sailing Woking can be found on www.radiosailingwoking.uk.
Results:
1stColin Goodman Chelmsford GRUNGE 17
2ndDave Andrews MYSA GRUNGE 32
3rdRoger Stollery Guildford UP 36
4thMartin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 47
5thRoger Pearce Woking PRIME NUMBER 63
6thPeter Chance Woking STARKERS 87
7thPeter Dunne Woking STARKERS 92
8thSimon Jeffs Woking PRIME NUMBER 114
2019 Marblehead National Championship, West Kirby 2019-07-21/22
Report for the GMYC website by Roger Stollery
This Championship followed on from the 10 rater National Championship, which was on the Thursday and Friday. 17 single heat races were sailed and the championship was won by James Edwards sailing a TRANCE. The Marbleheads sailed 15 races in 2 heats and we used nearly all our rigs.
Saturday
We were lucky with the weather with just a little bit of rain on Saturday in marked contrast to Friday’s downpours. Guildford was represented by 4 members, Peter and I, Rob Vice and David Coode and we all had problems at times in the strong wind. David and I spent most of our time in B heat and had some interesting races and often finished close together. The wind was blowing more or less straight down the lake from the west and was on average 16 miles an hour and maybe over 20 in the gusts; it was a day for the smallest C rigs. The photographs were taken in the seeding Race 1, when most were in C2 and show the big waves, which built up at the lower end of the lake where we were sailing. These had a big influence on performance in both directions. Whilst the UPs weren’t bothered off the wind, which we thoroughly enjoyed, but we did have some problems stalling on occasion when tacking, which didn’t help the results. Peter was disappointed that he led one of the races by quite a margin, only to pick up weed and spoil the result. The big waves didn’t help judgement when you were crossing other boats and I made inadvertent collisions when ducking starboard tack transoms, one of which caused a hole in the bottom of the boat which I didn’t notice until the end of the race, by which time it was half full of water! All but one of the races was won by either Brad Gibson, 4 or Graham Bantock, 3 with the other race won by Darin Ballington. Brad was the most consistent counting only firsts and seconds and even discarding a second!
Sunday
The light to moderate breeze was varying from the south or south south-west mainly A rig and occasionally B. However it was the direction that was a nightmare for the ROs Peter Baldwin and Derek Priestley, as when the wind was blowing across the lake it was difficult to set a start. We had to sail from the promenade to buoys that were over 100 metres away, making vision at the windward marks difficult. Reaching America’s Cup style starts and running starts with tried, but were not successful and these races were abandoned. There were constant delays as the courses were reset, but the ROs did a good job under difficult circumstances and 7 races were completed. Martin Roberts was back on form, was very consistent and had the best score for the day, whilst Peter was pleased with having most wins. Even I got out of B and had a couple of races in A heat to boost my rather pathetic scoreline. Rob ended the day well with a win after some pretty poor results in the morning.
This was a pretty good test for next year’s World Marblehead Championship and lots of things were learnt to help future race teams. 3 umpires were used buddied with observers and generally this worked well, although there were very few disputed incidents.
WoW Event 8 – 17th July 2019
Arcadia Trophy 06 July 2019
WoW Event 7 – 03 July 2019
WoW 03 July 2019
WoW!! Workshop On Water
Guildford Model Yacht Club is introducing new Wednesday After Lunch Events for 2019. Based on the most successful of our winter Friday Evening Workshops – SAIL TRIMMING, we will be holding summertime coaching Workshops on our Abbey Meads Lake, which will be completely free.
World Vane Marblehead Champion, Roger Stollery, will be passing on his great experience in radio, vane and full-size sailing to help YOU get the best out of your boat. This may help YOU to enjoy your sailing more and be more competitive than those who miss out on these WoW events.
Every class of boat is invited to Abbey Meads Lake whether you are a one design sailor of the DF classes, where it is only your sailing skill that gives YOU the difference, or the fine tuning of IOM’s, or the swing rigs of the M and 10 rater classes.
WoW! events are designed to be FUNand not just about sail trimming. During the 9 event WoW series there will be coaching sessions to practise things like starting, and every aspect of sailing round the course. As well as sailing windward, leeward and reaching courses, honing YOUR skills in finding the best winds etc,there will be one session with a short FUN course against the clock that you won’t have used before. This will show why YOU have to talk to each other, sail in a straight line, tack on the shifts both up and down wind and avoid contacts at all costs.
Inevitably, when there are a few boats on the water there will be some racing for YOU to try out your new trimsetc. You will enjoy sailing at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the southwith fantastic visibility from the high level control areas. GMYC are skilled at running more than one class at once to provide FUN and a challenge for all sizes of boat.
WoW! After Lunch Events start at 2 PM and depending on the weather, finish at about 5 PM. The next one is on Wednesday, 3rdJuly 2019. Please check on the GMYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.ukfor the dates of other WoW! events, which are planned for Wednesday, 17th& 31stJuly.
If you want to come, you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 either before or on the morning of the WoW!